The Celtic League Assistant General Secretary has responded to a request from the Chair of the ‘General Assembly Open-ended Working Group for the purpose of strengthening the protection of the human rights of older persons’ for a position paper from the NGO in relation to two focus areas of the 11th session of the working group. The submission has been acknowledged by DESA (UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs):
a) ”Right to Work and Access to the Labour Market” and “Access to Justice” in the context of older persons.
b) The development of a possible international standard on the protection of the rights of older people to “Education, Training, Life-long Learning and Capacity Building” and “Social Protection and Social Security.
The Leagues submission has concentrated on the need for ‘Nation’ State Parties to apply the principles already set down (in some instances over decades) by UN bodies (such as the ILO) and also the practical difficulties faced in ‘Transnational’ situations or where ‘Nation’ State Parties embrace distinct indigenous national groups as is the case with the Leagues area of interest.
The League was invited to submit as an accredited ‘roster status’ NGO (ECOSOC) and has indicated a willingness to provide additional input as required.
The recent Celtic League AGM in Carhaix agreed that the Assistant General Secretary would henceforth have the responsibility to field UN NGO related enquiries.
Bernard Moffatt
Assistant General Secretary
Celtic League (26/08/2019)
